10lb hawg fin clip steely buck!!

I met up with Charlie below slide hole Thursday morning, got into the boat shortly after i slipped and fell into some mud. I got in the boat and he said he had 2 on in the morning but they both got off and both felt like real good fish, what a bummer. He said alot of boats had gone through and most with motors and they pounded the holes hard. We fished the the first hole i met him at for a bit then we made our way down river. We got to pump hole and were anchored up when a fellow guide came down and started hitting the hole below us hard with bait. Then he came to the top one last time and asked Charlie if it was cool to run plugs through one pass. This isnt very cool, but charlie is a nice guy and let him go right on top of us. Charlie then said it would be sweet if we could hook up right after he passed through the same hole as us, using the same technique, he said it would be a “burn”. And wouldnt you know we hook up as plugging down the hole, not long after we had just got done saying how cool it would be to show them up. I fought the fish for awhile, it had to been at least 7lbs and it was really bright. Most of the plugs we use have two treble hooks on them. And during the fight the hook that was in the mouth some how popped out and the other hook got caught near its cheek. This really pissed it off and it made it fight five times harder, and alot harder to bring it to the boat. I tightened the drag a couple times and did it one last final time before the fish broke me off, we could see it swim off with the plug still on it. I felt soooo bad. And i think Charlie felt worse, since it was the 3rd nice one lost in the boat that day.

A boat was behind us the whole time watching so it felt even worse, kinda embarrassing. We were just glad the boat that had jumped right in front of us didnt see me lose it haha. We were really really bummed the rest of the day. Until. Right about noon id say, we were anchored up out by Rogue Elk Park, we were eating lunch and talking when we noticed one of the rods get slammed. Charlie reeled in the other rod as i grabbed the rod out of the holder and proceeded to fight a monster! Charlie pulled anchor and took the boat to shore so we could try to land the fish easier. I fought it there for over 5 mintues id say and i couldnt really get it to come up river. So finally i told Charlie to pull anchor and lets go after him! I fought him for a few more minutes before we were able to net him, the hardest and longest fighting fish i ever caught!

It ended up being a hatchery fish! We thought it was gonna be a wild one since it was so big, but nope it was a keeper. It measured 32 inches and weighed 10lbs, it would of weighed more had it been a female fish full of eggs. It had some really awesome meat too, great color and tasty. This was our only fish for the day, but we were happy, since the morning had gone so wrong. And my personal best fish made it really special, not many fish grow to that size, and i caught one! I want to thank Charlie from Fishingtherogue.com Every time I fish with him I do really well, he knows how to put you onto the fish. He’s a great net man too 😀